Sunday 28 December 2008
Videogames
I received a Nintendo DS copy of Chrono Trigger from my brother for Christmas. Since then, I've spent 20 hours trying to help Crono, Lucca and Marle save the world from the merciless alien parasite Lavos. Which got me thinking about all the time I've wasted playing videogames. Prior to receiving such a wonderful Christmas gift (Chrono Trigger is my favourite game of all-time, and I've now played it on three different consoles), I wasted time playing Heroes of Might and Magic 3 (My favourite PC game of all time). Now some of the many hours that both these games sucked away probably should have been devoted to continuing my Chinese study (on sort of a semi-hold after the Advanced HSK in October) or keeping up with the work for my Massey University extramural maths paper. My study has really hit a lull and I can kid myself all I want about reading Chinese blogs online or skimming through the Baidu news section being study. I mean these things are helpful and it's probably stopping my Chinese from regressing completely, but in order for me to break through the upper-intermediate level, I really should be doing more. 20 hours of Chinese study at this point in my life is probably worth more to me than helping Crono defeat Lavos for the 4th or 5th time.
Tuesday 15 July 2008
Collecting bottles.
Here in J-town (and I'm sure in many other places China) there are droves of old and decrepit folk wandering around looking for empty cans and bottles to recycle for cash. Prices range from 1 mao for 4 coke cans to 5 mao for a large beer bottle. Yeah, it's sad, but there are unfortunate souls whose only source of income is from plastic bottles.
I remember my second day in J-town, another foreigner took me out to lunch. As we were walking down the street, he knelt down and left his empty ice-tea bottle in the ground. I was a bit taken aback... sure, the streets are full of rubbish, but you don't need to contribute to the problem. The dude assured me that in 5 seconds, the bottle would be gone. Sure enough, when I turned back, some old woman had pounced on it and earned another 3 mao. As the guy also pointed out, the streets of small town China are full of rubbish of all kinds, cigarette butts, plastic bags, food waste, even human waste (and by that I mean feces)...... but not empty bottles.
Often enough, they'll come up to you and ask if you can give them the bottle once you have finished. Normally, I'm pretty fine with it. If there's only a little left, I'll knock it back and hand the bottle over. Sometimes, they can get pushy, as if they are entitled to the near empty bottle. "Hey look at me, I'm a bag lady, give me the bottle now". Obviously, in those situations I'm never inclined to give them them their prize, as my feelings of annoyance overwhelm my feelings of pity. It also raises the issue of when it is acceptable to approach and ask for the bottle. When there's only a mouthful or two left......cool. When there's half a 600ml bottle left, it's a hot day, I've been walking around for over an hour, several idiots have pointed and gone "AAAHHH, LAOWAI!!!" and I want to drink the rest of the fucking bottle at my leisure, then yeah..... I can be quite rude. Yeah, these are folk who are living day to day, so yes, I feel like a complete arsehole afterward. I just can't help acting that way when someone gets in my face.
I suppose I can't really blame them for being so desperate. There is heavy competition for those precious empty bottles. For example, at the university basketball courts, during peak times, there can be up to 5 old folk circling around the courts. They are like sharks, they move with a slow menacing gait, their eyes constantly dart around searching for prey. Usually, the pickings are pretty good. Young men playing ball work up quite a sweat and many bottles of water are consumed. Even so, there are conflicts over bottles. I've seen many a yelling match occur when one bottle collector swooped in and swiped a bottle that another scavenger had her eyes on. Sometimes, they'll just stand there and wait patiently for you to finish, I've had one old lady wait 20 minutes for a couple of empty bottles. I just think it's so crappy that we live in a world where there are people for whom 6 mao (a little more than 10 New Zealand cents) is worth 20 minutes of their time.
The aged bottle collectors have helped me realize something disturbing. If given a choice between old folk to "help out", I am more inclined to want to help out old dudes who have moustaches. I think it is related to the fact that my dad has a moustache. For some twisted reason, from a young age I've always respected and looked up to moustached men more than clean-shaven dudes. When I see an old bottle scavenger with a fine moustache shuffling around the street, my heart literally breaks. How can a noble moustachioed man have fallen on such hard times? Believe me, it really bothers me that I feel this way. I know that a 'stache is just a sign of a lack shaving as opposed to an indication that the person is awesome. Back to old poor people, the dudes who manage to shave everyone once in a while can't be too hard up, right? I'm somewhat justified in favouring the hirsute, no?
In all seriousness, the whole deal sucks......the situation that they are in, the begging that occurs, how much they value what we consider to be trash, the guilt that I and other people feel for not doing stuff to help them. Sure, I can hand over my bottle, but what am I really doing? Nothing. I'm not doing anything really meaningful for these folk in any way. Really, the level of gratitude that is shown for doing a little more than nothing is horrible for one's soul as well. Crap. That's why I don't normally stop to think too hard about stuff like this.
I remember my second day in J-town, another foreigner took me out to lunch. As we were walking down the street, he knelt down and left his empty ice-tea bottle in the ground. I was a bit taken aback... sure, the streets are full of rubbish, but you don't need to contribute to the problem. The dude assured me that in 5 seconds, the bottle would be gone. Sure enough, when I turned back, some old woman had pounced on it and earned another 3 mao. As the guy also pointed out, the streets of small town China are full of rubbish of all kinds, cigarette butts, plastic bags, food waste, even human waste (and by that I mean feces)...... but not empty bottles.
Often enough, they'll come up to you and ask if you can give them the bottle once you have finished. Normally, I'm pretty fine with it. If there's only a little left, I'll knock it back and hand the bottle over. Sometimes, they can get pushy, as if they are entitled to the near empty bottle. "Hey look at me, I'm a bag lady, give me the bottle now". Obviously, in those situations I'm never inclined to give them them their prize, as my feelings of annoyance overwhelm my feelings of pity. It also raises the issue of when it is acceptable to approach and ask for the bottle. When there's only a mouthful or two left......cool. When there's half a 600ml bottle left, it's a hot day, I've been walking around for over an hour, several idiots have pointed and gone "AAAHHH, LAOWAI!!!" and I want to drink the rest of the fucking bottle at my leisure, then yeah..... I can be quite rude. Yeah, these are folk who are living day to day, so yes, I feel like a complete arsehole afterward. I just can't help acting that way when someone gets in my face.
I suppose I can't really blame them for being so desperate. There is heavy competition for those precious empty bottles. For example, at the university basketball courts, during peak times, there can be up to 5 old folk circling around the courts. They are like sharks, they move with a slow menacing gait, their eyes constantly dart around searching for prey. Usually, the pickings are pretty good. Young men playing ball work up quite a sweat and many bottles of water are consumed. Even so, there are conflicts over bottles. I've seen many a yelling match occur when one bottle collector swooped in and swiped a bottle that another scavenger had her eyes on. Sometimes, they'll just stand there and wait patiently for you to finish, I've had one old lady wait 20 minutes for a couple of empty bottles. I just think it's so crappy that we live in a world where there are people for whom 6 mao (a little more than 10 New Zealand cents) is worth 20 minutes of their time.
The aged bottle collectors have helped me realize something disturbing. If given a choice between old folk to "help out", I am more inclined to want to help out old dudes who have moustaches. I think it is related to the fact that my dad has a moustache. For some twisted reason, from a young age I've always respected and looked up to moustached men more than clean-shaven dudes. When I see an old bottle scavenger with a fine moustache shuffling around the street, my heart literally breaks. How can a noble moustachioed man have fallen on such hard times? Believe me, it really bothers me that I feel this way. I know that a 'stache is just a sign of a lack shaving as opposed to an indication that the person is awesome. Back to old poor people, the dudes who manage to shave everyone once in a while can't be too hard up, right? I'm somewhat justified in favouring the hirsute, no?
In all seriousness, the whole deal sucks......the situation that they are in, the begging that occurs, how much they value what we consider to be trash, the guilt that I and other people feel for not doing stuff to help them. Sure, I can hand over my bottle, but what am I really doing? Nothing. I'm not doing anything really meaningful for these folk in any way. Really, the level of gratitude that is shown for doing a little more than nothing is horrible for one's soul as well. Crap. That's why I don't normally stop to think too hard about stuff like this.
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